Thank You to Patrick from Victory Coffee and Efrat from Threshold in Madison, WI for the use of their stylish spaces for the photo shoots

ABOUT Gaines & Wagoner

Based in Madison, WI, the award-winning husband and wife duo of Mary Gaines (cello, guitar, bass, vocals) and Chris Wagoner (violin, mandolins, lapsteel, ukulele, guitar, accordion, vocals) play an eclectic mix of Americana—original and classic tunes ranging from folk to jazz, bluegrass to blues, honky-tonk and a little singer-songwriter on the side.

Let’s just say you happen to walk into a music venue and see a duo playing cello and violin. You’d most likely expect to hear either classical or folk music of some kind, right? But just as you spy the lineup of crazy acoustic and electric stringed instruments of all varieties the duo tears into a tune that combines funky electric fuzz-wah fiddle with thumping pizzicato cello and your assumptions start to crumble. The next tune features old-time duo vocals over the jangle of an acoustic mandolin and guitar followed by a righteous gospel-fired slide-guitar-driven blues and then right into a crooning, heart-stopping jazz ballad. The space in-between the tunes is alternately punctuated by folk-style storytelling and light-hearted riffing with the audience. This is not “one-size-fits-all” music. This is Gaines and Wagoner.

“Chris and Mary are the Swiss Army knives
of string players!”

“Multi-instrumentalist Chris Wagoner and his wife
Mary Gaines are masters of string swing music…
equal parts Hawaiian luau and Parisian wedding
party. The love they bring to their music is as
apparent as the precision with which they make it.”

-Andy Moore, producer of Wisconsin Public Television’s
“30-Minute Music Hour"

”Acoustic jazz that swings hard…
great singing, superb playing.”

-Pelican Cafe Music Review, San Francisco, CA

“Masterful musicians with wonderful
expressiveness that will leave an impression
on the audience."

-Cuda Cafe, Deerfield, WI

”These folks can play anything, it seems,
and they move gracefully through idioms
you’d never thought one band could cover
in one circuit"